The Saint Coachlines Tours and Charters

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Margaret Garrett and Erin Ketel have earned the right to the words ‘Qualified By Experience’ on their Curriculum Vitae. These long-time friends are now business partners in ‘The Saint Coachlines’ tour and charter business and their collective history is a story that fascinates their clients.

Between them, they bring Margaret’s background in the telecommunications industry, nursing, horse breeding and event management and Erin’s background as a musician and as an ordained priest, turned school and tourist charter bus operator to their venture.

It was Erin’s religious background and an off-the-cuff conversation reminiscing about the 1960s TV series ‘The Saint’ that led to their name for the business that he established in October 2006.

“It was a play on the priest connection,” says Erin. “We’d thought of all sorts of names and then we played around with this one and it gelled after a while.”

Erin began the business with a 37-seater former school/charter bus then, in April 2008, Margaret joined him adding two 50-seater coaches into their fleet within the following 12 months of operation.

About this time they strengthened their brand with their new logo and its cute stick-figure ‘Saint’ which is incorporated within the lettering of the company name.















Their boutique-style tours are tailored for those in the over 50s age group, who are keen for adventure with a little built-in flexibility to their routine.

Typical of their tour packages is their two-day ‘Geysers and Gardens’ adventure to Rotorua with its a farm tour, visit to the Redwood Forest, Maori Cultural Experience and hangi and a dip at the Polynesian Spa to wind down at the end.

Their planned tour for Napier’s Art Deco Weekend in February 2010 is about encouraging the truly adventurous to travel down “in costume” to get into the swing of the weekend’s celebrations en route.

Margaret, who is in charge of marketing, put together tour packages for the 2008 ‘Equitana’ show in Australia that was the largest public equestrian industry trade shows in Australasia. She further drew on her event management skills to organise the inaugural ‘The Saint Kelt Capital Horse of the Year Golf Tournament’ held on the Saturday of the ‘Horse of the Year’ event, right down to designing the trophy for the golf tournament.

The 2010 Kelt Capital Horse of the Year is scheduled for March 16 – 21 with the options of four and seven day packages and half day adventures such as a mystery wine tour, a Cape Kidnappers Gannet Safari and an Art Deco tour.

Horses are a passion for Margaret, after hours as well. Margaret has six horses at her Dairy Flat family farm north of Auckland. She owns two ponies which, along with Erin’s help, are being broken in to harness for carriage driving competition.

For both Margaret and Erin, their love of people is at the heart of their business. “I love working with people and I love driving, so this was the perfect move for me,” explains Erin who worked extensively with older people during his training for the ministry.

Margaret describes their business goals as “creating the complete experience”. “It is much more than meals, accommodation and transport. We don’t want to rush people. If they’re enjoying a particular activity and want to stay a little longer then we can do that because we have built flexibility into the schedule. Our clients have really appreciated that. We care about their well-being and they know that. We are passionate about understanding and tending to the little things that make the greatest difference to our clients.”

For more information please visit: www.the-saint.co.nz or call: 0274 821 138, 021 959 180.

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